Once a Bobcat, Always a Bobcat

Over the past few years, I have attended a number of retirement parties for teachers, administrators, and support staff members.  Within these gatherings, I have interpreted a common theme from the comments and speeches centered around what type of legacy has been left by the retiree. As I listened to the various comments in recent weeks, I couldn't help but think about what I would like people to remember about me when my time in education has come to a close. We have all been in a composition or early journalism class where we were given an assignment to write our own eulogy.  I first completed this task in high school and wrote something ridiculous about being a millionaire Major League Baseball player or something along those lines.  I started thinking about this exercise much more seriously after I first read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by one of my heroes, the late Stephen Covey .  After reading Covey's work in 2007, I realized that my daily practices

It's hard to belive that we are down to the final two weeks of the school year.  Time flies, and there is still a great deal to get accomplished in the next ten school days.  This time of year is filled with excitement, but also a fair amount of anxiety, as teachers work diligently to get everything wrapped up. Image Credit: themoatblog.com I have been thinking a lot about many things as this year closes while preparing for 2015-16. Assessment results, leadership teams, Response to Intervention, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, collaboration time, schedules, instructional coaching, staff morale, etc, etc, etc.  All of these items are very important and plans will need to be made to enhance what we're doing to serve kids on a daily basis, but they were not in the front of my mind in later part of last week. Image Credit: lifehacker.com We had two events that truly displayed the power of community, engagement, connection, and pride.   The Epworth Elemen